We Don't Even Know (general, comedy, good+times)

Christian Felix and Shonali Bhowmik became fast friends while working as temporary workers at a huge law firm in Manhattan. They share a love of laughing and giving each other hell. They may be called hipsters, old school, mainstream, irreverent, classic, country, gangster, or rock n' roll. All labels apply. Special guests, music, and attitude every episode.

Our 2018 WDEK Holiday Episode 65 was taped in Shonali's apartment in front of a live audience w special guest co-host Shalewa Sharpe and guests comedians Sharron Paul, Chris Laker and musician James Harvey. This is a re-taping of our brilliant October 2018 show for reasons you will learn when you listen to Ep. 65. The cider was flowing and the holiday spread was spread out.

Shonali and Shalewa's friendship began way back in the ATL. Cover your ears mom for the first 5 minutes of this conversation. Christian, Shalewa and Shonali talk cornbread WET dressing and fried turkey.

Comedian Chris Laker joins us in his festive socks and all around good shirt. We talk male Spanx, family (non) responsibilities, moving to Los Angeles and performing at the Fringe Fest. Look for Chris walking in the streets of LA bc he would rather not drive.

Our Get It Off Your Chest with Delmira "Dee" Lemus gets serious. Christian shocks us with his GIOYC. Shonali complains about herself. Shalewa has had it with bodega workers ruining her snack cake experience. Fortnite problems are messing with Dee's bank account. Pretty sure WDEK is the only podcast in which you will hear a serious conversation regarding Alfonso Ribeiro, Fred "Rerun" Berry AND pajama wear.

Pianist, composer, musical comedy performer James Harvey sock game is tight. Seeing Little Shop Of Horrors as a kid sparked his interest in writing musicals. He performs the five stages of grief from his one man show, The Bald Faced Truth. James is currently working on his new musical Amazon-The Musical, and it's not about the rainforest.

Happy Birthday to Jason Lam! He filled in for Daria Huxley as photographer. Also make plans to attend Shalewa's live album taping is January 27th at Union Hall in Brooklyn - two shows 7PM & 9:30PM!

How many meals did you have on Thanksgiving? Well for one of our hosts, that answer is more than one. It's the holiday season and in Episode 64 (is actually Ep. 65 BUT we unfortunately had issues with the audio recording for that show from October 2018 with Sharron Paul, Shalewa Sharpe, Chris Laker and James Harvey and will be sharing their voices with you next month.) Christian and Shonali must catch up on all things food and family related. They are joined by guests photographer (our own in house WDEK photographer) and world explorer Daria Huxley, professional figure ice skater, comic actor & filmmaker Tommy Do and musician & writer Maggy Adeleye.

Daria Huxley moved to NYC from St. Petersburg, Russia for an internship only 3 1/2 years ago. She admits to enjoying our Russian hacker WDEK Episode 57. Daria's photos are very much like paintings in that she transforms images of architecture into beautiful abstract compositions. Christian teaches us about the "not safe for work setting" for photos on Tumblr. Daria brought two books to the show to share with the audience including 300 ft Under a book about St. Petersburg subway and Geometria, about fine art architecture. Daria enjoys mostly taking photos of people and explains what its like to put a camera into a stranger's face. She also enjoys surfing in the Rockaways. Check out Daria's work on 500px.

Tommy Do is the first professional figure ice skater we have had on our show. He just performed at Barclays Center which for you out of NYC towners is a really big arena. He works for a family friendly company which involves a mouse. He also is a comedy filmmaker and stars in his own film called Masc Only written by him which focuses on queer friendships and masculinity in gay culture. Tommy says "It's hard for people to hear they are gay sometimes." Tommy is the child of Vietnamese immigrants and says there isn't much he can do to compare to the amazing feats his parents have accomplished. Want to go to Philly over the New Year to see Tommy perform? Christian and Shonali are going.

We #GetItOffYourChest with audience member Anthony Lathon. Topics include Black Friday, subway non-strap hangers and Facetiming during the holidays. Let it all out ya'll.

Our final guest is musician & writer Maggy Adeleye. She moved to NYC from Houston via LA in 2017. She has made the decision to focus on creative pursuits and is now a musician and writer, and no longer a financial analyst. Maggy suffers from a chronic illness called endometriosis and is spreading the word surrounding the heft of this illness while also creating a support network for others who suffer from this disease. Maggy's emotive vocal style and acoustic finger picking style are her own but she is inspired by artists like Emeli Sande and Ed Sheeran. Maggy admits that because of her look she is often pigeonholed as an R&B musician, but she is a soulful modern folk-pop songwriter and is currently putting together a band. Are you a drummer, cellist or fiddler? Listen to her perform two of her original songs for us in the studio, Tonight Will End and The City.

Look for Shonali's band Tigers & Monkeys to hit the stage in Atlanta on 12/8, Birmingham on 12/9 and Memphis on 12/10! Happy Holidays!

Shonali Bhowmik and Christian Felix co-host a chat, music, variety talk show with guests comedian and oversharer Calvin Cato; humorist, cartoonist, artisanal pencil sharpener and tv host David Rees along with music by Tigers and Monkeys. Christian Felix is back in his co-hosting seat after a trip to Singapore where they know how to deal with the heat.

Calvin Cato, a self professed oversharer, explains how as a premed major, he made his way into the world of comedy. Calvin wrote an open letter to his white male friends and WDEK endorses his sentiment. Get It Off Your Chest with audience member Martina Potratz. If you ever wondered, strangers really do yell things out at pregnant women in the streets.

David Rees is a master of many trades including a fact checker, an artisanal pencil sharpener, the creator of the cartoon Get Your War On, the host of a tv show called Going Deep (find it online) but one of his most important works was his Financial Transparency - Journey Into Hell presentation. Both David and Christian protect themselves from the heat with help of a handkerchief.

Tigers & Monkeys, a band led by WDEK's own Shonali Bhowmik just released their third full length album titled Saturday Destroyer. Shonali along with bandmates Jason Lam, Anthony Cangelosi and Russell Dungan perform stripped down versions of their songs Over The Sun, Magic Marker and Dinosaurs Surrender.

Our first guest is comedian, author and actress Maeve Higgins. Maeve first impressed Shonali with her sparkly sandals but Maeve's undeniable wit and intelligence are what sealed the deal in their friendship. We discuss Maeve's new book Maeve In America along with worldly topics like vagina extensions, M&M world, mental illness, Irish America and the seduction of being white.

Comedian Hari Kondabolu FINALLY is a guest on WDEK live. The discussion starts out light regarding signing autographs and wet t-shirt contests and things get serious when Shonali confesses she was a prom queen and mathlete in high school. Hari has a new Netflix special out called Warn Your Relatives and TruTV documentary The Problem With Apu. Most importantly, Hari and Shonali both have brilliant mothers.

Our audience member Maggy Adeleye joins us for our Get It Off Your Chest segment. We discuss using the word "sweetie", saying you are "color-blind" and being asked to be co-host for WDEK on a day when the heat index is 99 degrees in NYC.

Our final guest is Camille Harris! She is a musician, writer, teacher, comedian and actress. Camille came to NYC as a former prom queen and international baccalaureate. Prom queens unite! She wrote a musical called Muffin Man and has been recently working on a children's album called Silly Jazz with Camille. She is not on social media. Impressive, right? Camille performs two songs in the Red Room, Trying Something New and Baby On The Subway.

Also Shonali has a band called Tigers and Monkeys which has a new album coming out on Sept. 17, 2018. It is called Saturday Destroyer. Tigers and Monkeys will be the musical guest on the September 18th WDEK Live show.

Guest co-host Jordan Clifford joins Shonali for Episode 61 while Christian Felix is in Singapore doing who knows what. Jordan helps Shonali analyze her disgusting dream. Our first guest is actress, dancer, comedian Sunita Mani. Shonali and Sunita are family friends. Jordan and Sunita were in the same crew together in college at Emerson College. Jordan tried to make Sunita cry once. We discuss Sunita's success as an actress (Mr. Robot, GLOW) and if it has gone to her head. Look for Sunita in No Activity. Out of nowhere, a podcast protestor interrupts our show! Our second guest is comedian, writer & producer Myka Fox. Myka just celebrated her birthday and Shonali forces Myka to tell a depressing story about a specific past birthday. Find out whether Myka ever had an ex-boyfriend help her move? Myka has the best Twitter account & you must follow her. Check out Myka's Friday night weekly show at the Cobra Club called Live From Outer Space. Sidenote: Have you seen the PBS documentary on Maya Angelou? It's on Netflix now. Ep. 61 Get It Off Your Chest is with audience member Ricky Trabucco. We have some good ones: airplane boarding eagerness, people with clipboards & purchasing lottery tickets. Our final guest is musician Shannon Wright. Shannon is a guitarist, pianist, singer-songwriter and her performances are raw, emotional, breathtaking and powerful all at one moment. Shonali & Shannon are long time friends who just discovered they both sold ice cream and were accused of stealing as adolescents. Shannon is shy. Shannon is a prolific artist who is starting work on her 11th solo album. She is adored by the likes of Jordan Clifford, Steve Albini, Yann Tiersen and recently composed the music for French director Guillaume Nicloux's To The Ends Of The World. Listen to Shannon Wright perform Avalanche live at We Don't Even Know.

We celebrate our 60th episode of We Don't Even Know with special guests comedian and family documentary photographer Ahna Tessler; comedian, writer, actor and director Jon Glaser; and improv musician and comedian Rebecca Vigil. Shonali & Christian applaud the awesome audience in attendance at WDEK Live for getting out of the fetal position and making it to the show while the news cycle continues to kick all of our asses. Our first guest of the night is comedian, actress and photographer Ahna Tessler. She is also a mother and we all agree doesn't get enough attention these days. We told her she could swear as much as she wanted during the taping. Ahna's longtime comedy partner Lauren Engle was in attendance at the show. They are legends. Ahna has made so many fantastic videos which she calls 'dumb' but we call hysterical. There was a little controversy surrounding Ahna's breastfeeding video. Check out Ahna's beautiful family photography. She is humble and doesn't brag about it bc she is a woman.

Our next guest, Jon Glaser is a comedian, actor, writer and star of Jon Glaser Loves Gear and also the Adult Swim show Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter. Jon is a powerhouse in the comedy world. As you expected, Jon has lots of gear. We get the low low low low down on how Jon came up with the idea for the show Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter. It's so dumb. We love it. Shonali and Jon used to jam together and after you hear Jon's new summertime hit tune you will understand why they are ready to take the show on the road.

During #GetItOffYourChest with audience member Michael McMenamin, we learn that you must make sure the washing machine is fully drained before putting in your clothes. Christian uses the words 'fecal air.' Gross. Shonali's rants about unnecessarily expensive fashion choices.

Our final guest of the evening is improv musician and actress Rebecca Vigil . Rebecca went to 13 different schools and still sings about love. She's remarkable for many reasons, but we are super impressed with her big winnings while on a game show. Two of our lucky audience members, Sergio Douglas and Maggy Adeleye were interviewed by Rebecca on stage and then ....well listen to see what happened, will you?

Welcome to our 59th Episode of WDEK Podcast. Justin the intern starts the live show on a Tuesday night at the Red Room in NYC! Christian just returned from father's retirement party in Chicago. Shonali just returned from Nashville where she kept up with the news about a racist crazy tv star and her tweets. What's it like to have your creative work rejected in person to your face over and over? We ask our first guest that question. She is cartoonist, illustrator, writer and performer Emily Flake. She has "cobbled" together a living as a cartoonist for a long time now. She's come a long way from being an ad sales person for alt weekly New York Blade to becoming a successful cartoonist who has had hundreds of her works featured in the New Yorker. She's written a book about parenting called Mama Tried. She's a parent who refreshingly doesn't think being a parent is the MOST awesome thing in the world. How cool is that? Look out for her upcoming YA (Young Adult) book she's working on now, a fictional fanzine from 1992. Our second guest is H. Jon Benjamin, a comedian, actor and writer probably most famous for his work as the voice of Bob in Bob's Burgers and the voice of Archer in Archer. Benjamin as Shonali calls him (they are old friends) used to host a comedy show in the East Village called Midnight Pajama Jam. It was the best. JB's written a book that just came out called Failure is An Option: An Attempted Memoir. Shonali's been listening to the audiobook and loves it. She is intrigued by Jon Benjamin's love for disco, roller skating and disco balls. Jon explains what the main take away from his book is in two words. We Get It Off Our Chest with illustrator musician Marcellus Hall who refuses to rap with us. Our final guest is musician, singer, songwriter Rob Townsend. Rob is originally from Spartanburg, SC. He's also a part time sailing instructor and may be the only gay sailing captain on the Hudson. We like the idea of a gay sailboat. We discuss the difficulty of selling music during an era where everyone gets their music free. Rob moved to NYC from Austin, TX where he was in a folk band. His music has changed drastically. He is humble and self deprecating but we think he's awesome. He sings an original song called Clatskanie and a Randy Newman tune called Short People! Welcome to our new sound engineer Ezana Million! ENJOY!!! Photo by Daria Huxley.

Episode 58 was taped on April 3, 2018 - the 50th Anniversary of MLK's" I've Been to the Mountaintop" final speech. Shonali & Christian have been traveling. When was the last time you stayed in a hostel. Our first guest is actor, writer & director Sanjit De Silva who recently closed out a run at New York Theater Workshop starring in the play An Ordinary Muslim written by Hammaad Chaudry. After working for 15 years as an actor, the play was his first time to be in a majority brown people cast. We talk breaking our parents hearts and the glamorous life of a working actor. Pat Alvarado joins us for our Get It Off Your Chest segment or does he? Our second guest is comedian & writer Alison Leiby. Alison wrote for Comedy Central's The President Show and currently writes for Jordan Klepper's The Opposition. Find out what Alison thinks about Christian's solar system shirt. She shares her recent dealings with Twitter trolls and how a near death experience led her to comedy. Alison has great advice for up and coming female comedians. Our impromptu Get It Off Your Chest guest Tim Ewing also has words for Christian's shirt. Our final guest is musician Graham Norwood. Graham, who is legally blind, started to focus on his own solo project only two years ago after spending 15 years working on the music of other artists. Outside of music, Graham is the Director for the Foundation and Corporate Relations for the Partnership for The Homeless. Wow! Graham sings two songs for us including Collapses to Zero and Lazarus Avenue.

Shonali's special guest co-host is comedian Danny Cohen, her favorite FB live video maker! Guests include scientist Kelly Reidy, filmmaker Heather Fink and musician Miyuki Furtado. "The Summer of Shonali and Danny" thus far has included a trip to a cemetery in the Berkshires and eating lots of snacks. Danny was banned from Facebook. WDEK's first guest is scientist & indie songstress Kelly Reidy. Say "theoretical condensed matter" three times real fast. Kelly is a Museum Hack tour guide and recently gave Rob Lowe and his family a Natural History Museum tour. We talk ghost sex (it's a thing) and ghost attire. Follow Kelly @drunkascheese on Twitter and Instagram. Danny and Shonali discuss DuckFace and why it still exists? Our second guest is filmmaker, actress, director, comedian Heather Fink. Heather took a leap of faith and changed her career path from stand-up to filmmaking. We talk believing in yourself, rejection, getting dumped and her first feature length film Inside You which will be screened in NYC on August 6th at Kew Gardens Cinemas Festival. It's a body switching sex comedy in which Heather is lead actress and director. How did she do it? Here's the Inside You trailer! Our regular segment #GetItOffYourChest is back! Thomas Kelsey joins Danny & Shonali to vent. In no particular order we vent about A capella singing, littering, and angling (walking diagonally) while you walk. Our last guest is musician Miyuki Furtado. We discuss growing up in Hawaii, being a member of the Kiss Army, his former band The Roger Sisters and his current solo project Divining Rod. He releases a Double A side single on July 28th which showcases some of his psychedelic southern roots which will be included in his upcoming album. Miyuki brought his suitcase kickdrum & guitar and performed 3 of his original songs including Love Come Tumbling, Darling Down the Road, and Hemlock Blues. They are brilliant. Enjoy! Also Christian is to be back with us on August 15th!

We return from our two month break after our WDEK Variety Fest with a Sizzling Summer Show - SSS show - BAM! Is it still considered alliteration if the words start with the same letter although letter doesnt have the same sound - Sss vs sh? Will you look that up for us? While Christian is away, our special guest host this month is a longtime friend of WDEK; the multi talented (musician, illustrator and writer) Mr. Marcellus Hall! Our first guest is comedian, writer & actress Becky Yamomoto. Find out how she got to NYC and created a successful career here as a standup & actress although her Mom and Dad never go to her shows. Her web series Uninspired is one of Shonali's favorites. Shonali performs a new song yet to be released called The Dream Is Still Alive with Marcellus on harmonica. Our second guest is Mars Ganito, guitar player, singer and one of the leaders of the punk pop indie band Aye Nako. We talk about life on the road, growing up in Arkansas within a large family and his love of country music. Mars has described his band's music as "sad songs about being queer, trans and black," however we don't find them so sad. They make us happy. Reminiscent of the best of early indie rock bands like Superchunk, Helium & Pavement; their sound is ragged, raw and dissonant but also catchy, fresh and original. Special guest co-host Marcellus Hall performs one of his new tunes called Our Devices. WDEK's last guest is Mike DuClos, a brilliant musician who has performed with lots of great bands and musicians Listen and learn about tourbus etiquette and performing with Joan Baez and Dire Straits. Mike is what we call a professional musician. He's even played on Broadway before. He hated that. He's a great storyteller who is known in most circles as being a "wise ass." He agrees. Listen and decide for yourself. Thanks to all of you who support us and listen to our show. We have t-shirts for some of you lucky fools! Email us! And lastly Listen to Aye Nako's Spare Me!